I'm just adding to what you have to say, A good LARP group to join would be Dagorhir, since it focuses on combat primarily and has roleplaying on the side, the veterans of the sport are really awesome and can provide some good tips on wielding your weapon correctly, and such. Though for the rest, you would have to improvise by studying anatomy, and participating in practices that focus on exploiting the weak points of an opponent with the strong points of you and your sword.

A good site to look at would be http://www.thearma.org/ An even more versatile source of information would be http://swordforum.com/ though the information isn't as organized, there are a lot of people on the forums who really know what they are talking about, and the range of information on swords in that community is without a doubt the most vast of any on the internet.